Andéol
Digitally printed accessories and homewares, inspired by world travels and made in Sydney
by Emily Bihl
Travel is a hugely inspirational force for textile designer Emilie Cacace, and it leads to much more than gorgeous Instagram photos of remarkable locales. Cacace’s brand Andéol utilizes natural materials picked up from her travels as the base for her digitally-printed silk scarves, bags, pillows and jewelry. The result is a marriage of organic forms and current technology that is 100% Australian-made, and as aesthetically mesmerizing as it is conceptually poignant.
Each collection is inspired by a location that Cacace visits at the start of the design process. There, she collects local flowers, leaves, handmade paper—any bits and pieces, no matter how seemingly insignificant, that inspire her. After bringing these materials back to Sydney, Australia, she begins sketching, scanning and manipulating them using Photoshop—juxtaposing and editing different materials until she has achieved the perfect balance of striking repetition and artful abstraction. Because of this unique process, Cacace says, “Each collection is completely different from the last and is also a completely different experience for me when designing.”
All Andéol designs are created in 110cm squares; the size of Andéol’s silk scarves (scarves being the brand’s first products). From there, the graphics for other items are created by quilting together these square panels of digital art to be better suited to handbags, jewelry and homewares. “I love overlaying and combining my artwork to create new designs and new colors. Feeling free to explore new techniques brings new art,” she says. This love of exploration, with a tinge of the otherworldly, permeates Andéol’s collections.
Andéol’s current collection “Trulli Madly” is inspired by Cacace’s time in Puglia, Italy (trulli are uniquely shaped houses with conical limestone roofs found in the southern region) as well as Mexico, and is available from select retailers (both online and offline) this month. Previous collections can also be purchased at Andéol’s webshop.
Images courtesy of Andéol
